If you’re driving to or from Northern California this summer, you may be following one of the great wagon trails left by our forefathers. Consider taking a little time along the way to learn about the route and the intrepid travelers that built this nation. National Park Service Map of the California and Oregon Trail … Continue reading The California and Oregon Trail
Place
The People of Death Valley
Part 1: Shoshone and Paiute Tribes Western Slope of the Panamints in winter California's Death Valley is magnificent. Wildly beautiful, strange, remote, awe-inspiring - it deserves these accolades, and more. It is an odd place; nothing quite like it exists anywhere else on this continent. Nothing is on a small scale here; extreme is the … Continue reading The People of Death Valley
The Ghost Town of Bodie
Now a state park, Bodie was once an active mining town on the high desert in Eastern California. Here lie the bones of history, in the shadow of the eastern Sierra Nevada, north of Mono Lake between Lee Vining, California, and Hawthorne, Nevada. This is the ghost town of Bodie, California. Once the home of … Continue reading The Ghost Town of Bodie
Monument Valley
Part 7 of Northern Arizona East from Tuba City takes us through Navajo Land to some of the most magnificent country on the face of the earth. Monument Valley is north of Kayenta at the Utah state line. Further north is the Bear’s Ears, an area with a pair of distinctive, towering buttes that look … Continue reading Monument Valley
Tuba City and The Hopi
Part 6 of Northern Arizona Visiting the Navajo Nation is an adventure. The people are very welcoming, but there are some rules visitors need to follow there. First is, we’re not just crossing a state line or entering a Park when you enter Navajo land. You’re entering a sovereign, self-governing nation with its own tribal … Continue reading Tuba City and The Hopi
The History of Navajoland
Part 5 of Northern Arizona The land of the Navajo is wonderfully varied with high deserts, pinon trees on grassland and alpine forests. The high plateaus, mesas and mountains touch the clouds, reaching out from the desert floor at 2700 feet to mountaintops over 10,000 feet. Volcanoes and wind and water erosion carved the Navajo … Continue reading The History of Navajoland
Crossing Arizona on I-40, The New Route 66
Part 4 of Northern Arizona Red Rock Mountains near Sedona Driving across Northern Arizona means crossing the historic land of the Navajo and Hopi tribes. The drive can take several hours or several days, depending upon your curiosity level. You can follow a two lane road that cuts north then wanders eastward to the four … Continue reading Crossing Arizona on I-40, The New Route 66
Old Bill and Williams, Arizona
Part 3 of Northern Arizona Williams, Arizona, is a place that has always piqued my interest. It’s high up in the pines, about 30 miles west of Flagstaff. Summers there are mighty pleasant, very different from much of Arizona. Nowadays it’s a tourist town, famous for being the southern entrance to the Grand Canyon and … Continue reading Old Bill and Williams, Arizona
The Magic of Northern Arizona
Part 1 of Northern Arizona San Francisco Mountains Northern Arizona is wild and beautiful, a truly unique area. It isn’t the Arizona most people think of; Yes, there is desert, but there are also mountains - snow capped mountains in winter - pine forests and comfortable summers. It’s the home of the Grand Canyon, and … Continue reading The Magic of Northern Arizona